RAGS AT A DISCO UNT. 311 



occasionally happened, the water was a little distant, others hastened and 

 brought a pot or two of water to cook our food with, and also firewood. They 

 are an industrious people, and very fond of agriculture. For hours at a time 

 have we marched through unbroken corn-fields of nearly a mile in width. 

 They erect numerous granaries for the reception of the grain, which give 

 their villages the appearance of being unusually large ; and when the water 

 of the Zambesi has subsided they place the grain, tied up in bundles of grass, 

 well plastered over with clay, on low sand islands, as a protection against the 

 attacks of marauding mice and men. 



" Owing to the ravages of the weevil, the native corn can hardly be 

 preserved until the following crop comes in. However largely they may 

 cultivate, and abundant the harvest, it must all be consumed the same year in 

 which it is grown. This may account for their making so much of it into 

 beer. The beer they brew is not the sour and intoxicating kind found among 

 other tribes, but sweet, and highly nutritious, with only a slight degree ot 

 acidity to render it a pleasant drink. We never saw a single case of intoxi- 

 cation among them, though all drank great quantities of beer. They were 

 all plump, and in good condition. 



" Both men and boys were eager to work for very small pay. Our men 

 could hire any number of them to carry their burdens for a few beads a-day 

 or a bit of cloth. The miserly and extra-dirty cook had an old pair of 

 trousers some of us had given him, and which he had long worn himself: 

 with one of the decayed legs of his trousers he hired a man to carry his 

 heavy load a whole day ; a second man carried it the next day for the other 

 leg ; and what remained of the old trousers, minus the buttons, procured the 

 labour of another man for the third day. 



" A peculiar order of men is established among them, the order of the 

 Endah Pezes (Go-Nakeds). The badge of this order, as the name suggests, 

 consists in the entire absence of the slightest shred of clothing. They are 

 in the state in which Adam is reported to have been before his invention of 

 the fig-leaf apparel. We began to see members of this order about two days 

 above the junction of the Kafue ; two or three might be seen in a village. 

 The numbers steadily increased, until in a short time every man and boy 

 wore a badge of the Endah Pezes. The chief of one of the first villages, a 

 noble, generous fellow, was one, as were likewise two or three of his men. In 

 the afternoon he visited us in the full dress of his order, viz., a tobacco-pipe, 

 nothing else whatever, the stem about two feet long, wound round with 

 polished iron. He gave us a liberal present. Early next morning he came, 

 accompanied by his wife and daughter, with two large pots of beer, in order 

 that we might refresh ourselves before starting. Both the women, as comely 

 and modest-looking as we have seen in Africa, were well clothed and adorned. 



" The women, in fact, are all well clothed, and have many ornaments. 



